Anyone ever dig where a stamp mill sat???

[Guest412]

I own a good chunk of land that used to be an old mining camp back in the day. The stamp mill sat for 71 years operating in one location next to the river. I know I have found alot of mercury leaching from where the stamp mill was when I dredged just below it. I can flood the area and dredge where it sat just curious if it would be worth doing. Heres a pic. The cam to the mill is in the middle of the river. that area made a large bowl like area in the canyon. could be some good stuff down at the bottom. Any Inputs??

 

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[Guest412]

Here is another pic of when I found the stamps just down river about 100yrds. I moved them out of the way , was thinking of re-assembling it one day as a static display or something of that nature. Thanks again !

 

[lbell]

HEY sweet spot you have there: I personally have not dredged at a stamp mill site but i will have the opportunity to in the future. if you want to get rid of the stamps a Friend of mine has historic mine in tuolumne co. and some dirtbags stole his 5 stamp mill along with two other mines in the area and sold the metal for scrap. what AHOLES can you believe that anyway the only thing left of his setup are the hopper and the grizzly and the bottom part of the pelton wheel generator(just the mount actually).good luck with your spot and think about it he still has the concrete foundation at his place along with most of the water pipe for the pelton wheel.his was installed in about 1890 but there was a 2 stamp there before. thanks Larry

 

[Guest412]

Where those stamps are sitting you would have a helluva time moving them anywhere to be transported out. Im gonna keep them and put the whole thing back together , one day, so probably never. haha . I have the 4cyl air compressor and various other parts layin around too. lotta ore car track scattered about as well. That sucks about yer friend , junkies will steal anything they can.

 

[nuggy]

Hi Downdeep, yes I have dug up around 2 old stamping batteries and if they haven't been really well cleaned up they can be very good producers. If you can flood the area around the foundations and dredge it that would probably be the easiest way to go. I used a highbanker set up to do one and the other one I used a pump and motor to sluice it all down a ditch I dug and lined with rough riffles.
The old time miners were quite sloppy with their amalgam, and spilled a little often - this can add up to a whole lot around the old foundations - get as deep around them as you can, right to rock bottom if possible, and if they are wooden like the foundations I dug - the amalgam gets right into the wood as it cracks open, and even more at the joins.

As well as the stamper foundations there will be an area nearby, with a lot of old ashes and metal junk associated with it. This is where they retorted and melted their amalgam and gold. This would have also had a lot of gold around it. Splatters and balls of gold, from the melting, dropped amalgam, glassy looking melted borax with gold in it, and broken or even whole ceramic crucibles with even more gold stuck to them. Some of this stuff will have to be broken up and crushed fine in a dolly pot. Probably a good way to go would be to sieve all this stuff - put the fines through a small box and visually inspect the rest for signs of gold.

Good luck with the clean up, wish I was closer to help . If it has not been done well you should be able to find quite a few ounces, provided it was worked for a reasonable number of years. Nuggy